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==Typeface Selection==
After evaluating the purpose and desired effect of a form or document, and creating a structure and wording that meets that purpose and effect, a technical communicator may think the majority of the job is complete. However, the [[typeface]] used for a form and document can greatly affect not only the reader, but the purpose and effect of that form or document.
===Typeface vs. font===
Most simply, “a"a font is what you use, and a typeface is what you see".”<ref name=glossary13/> "''The Typographer’s Glossary"'' defines typeface as: “An"An artistic interpretation, or design, of a collection of alphanumeric symbols".”<ref name=glossary26>"The Typographer’s Glossary", 26.</ref> Typeface includes "letters, numerals, punctuation, various symbols, and more".<ref name=glossary26/> "A typeface is usually grouped together in a family containing individual fonts for italic, bold, and other variations of the primary design.".<ref name=glossary26/> A font, on the other hand, is: "a collection of letters, numbers, punctuation, and other symbols used to set text (or related) matter.".<ref name=glossary13/> To further explain, “font"font refers to the physical embodiment…while typeface refers to the design".<ref name=glossary13/> In any event, the terms "font" and "typeface" are used interchangeably by some authors and designers.<ref name=glossary13>"The Typographer’s Glossary", 13.</ref>
===Appropriate Selection===
Jo Mackiewicz, from the Composition and Linguistics Department of the University of Minnesota Duluth, has done extensive research into typeface and has published multiple articles on the topic.<ref>Mackiewicz (2004), 131.</ref> Mackiewicz says that students should: “select"select typefaces that are appropriate for their technical documents".”<ref>Mackiewicz (2004), 114</ref> What Mackiewicz means when she talks about an “appropriate"appropriate typeface”typeface" is that it contributes to the desired “overall"overall rhetorical effect”effect" and conveys “more"more specific effects…as intended".”<ref name=mackiewicz118>Mackiewicz (2004), 118.</ref> In another article, Mackiewicz points out that “typefaces"typefaces substantially contribute to the visual, as opposed to the verbal, language of documents".”<ref>Mackiewicz (2005), 291.</ref> This is important, since it has already been established that professional technical communicators see their role as largely visual as compared to verbal.<ref>Brumberger, 386.</ref>
===Personality===
In selecting an appropriate typeface, Mackiewicz focuses on what she calls “typeface"typeface personality".” She researches other technical communicators’ works to come up with a definition of typeface personality as “that"that aspect of typeface that imbues it ‘with the power to evoke in the perceiver certain emotional and cognitive responses’”responses’" and “the"the ability to convey different feelings and moods…strength, elegance, agitation, silliness, friendliness, scariness, and other moods".”<ref>Mackiewicz (2004), 113.</ref> Mackiewicz further explains that: “increased"increased attention to typeface personality is especially important now that students have access to thousands of typefaces, many of which can detract from or conflict with the seriousness, professionalism, and competency that students intend to convey".”<ref>Mackiewicz (2004), 128.</ref> The selection of typeface is also important in situations where more than one typeface is present in a form or document. Mackiewicz says,: “if"if more than one typeface is being used within a document, students should also carefully consider the extent to which the personalities of the typefaces they have selected are concordant".”<ref name=mackiewicz118/>
====History====
One way that Mackiewicz notes that technical communicators can determine a typeface’s personality is through looking at its history; she says,: “the"the personality a typeface conveys may stem in large part from the ways in which that typeface has been used in the past".”<ref name=mackiewicz121>Mackiewicz (2004), 121.</ref> To show what she means, Mackiewicz notes that the typeface [[Fette Fraktur]] is rarely used today because it was used in [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[propaganda]] from 1933 to 1945.<ref name=mackiewicz121/> Because of situations like the one involving Fette Fraktur, Mackiewicz points out: “the"the ways in which a typeface has been used [in the past] can influence the overall affect{{ (sic}}) of a student’s document and, consequently, it can send an unintended message".”<ref name=mackiewicz121/>
===Impressions on Readers===
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